Monday, September 19, 2011

1980 bob owchinko

bob owchinko was traded from the padres to the indians in february of 1980. here is his 1980 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

owchinko did not seem to adapt well to the american league. for the tribe in 1980, he was 2-9 with an era of 5.27 in 29 games. he made 14 starts, and did have one highlight - a 4-hit shutout of the tigers in september. a few weeks later, he made his final start of the season at baltimore. owchinko went 11 innings and gave up 2 runs in the first game of a double header that the orioles eventually won in the bottom of the 13th on a walk-off homer from gary roenicke.

that would be owchinko's last appearance in an indians uniform, as he was sent to pittsburgh in the offseason as part of the bert blyleven deal. the pirates flipped him later in the offseason to the a's where owchinko made his lone postseason appearance. unfortunately for us, neither deal was captured in an o-pee-chee variation as owchinko was left out of the set, but his 1981 donruss card is pretty cool, especially since he wasn't a pirate once the season started.